Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is basically money to pay for a study in six different towns. I presume the study will involve employing a consultant to do a report. That seems to be where we are going here. The Minister should talk to Irish Rural Link, the credit union movement or the chambers of commerce in any of those towns. He would not need to spend €100,000 for an analysis of the problems and where the money needs to be spent to regenerate those towns and get people to come back to live in them.

It is a waste of resources compared with the problem we have. With €100,000 allocated, people in those towns think that it is coming to deliver something in that area and not to produce another study. We have probably had dozens of studies on rural Ireland and they are all sitting on shelves gathering dust. Action is needed. The Minister will say before having action we need a plan as to where that action will be and all that. All those plans have been done before. I am frustrated €600,000 will be spent buttering up more consultants. If that is what it is about, it is time the Minister gave this a bit of a shake-up.

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